What Makes You Happy?: Appreciating the Reasons that Bring Happiness to Argentine Children Living in Vulnerable Social Contexts

GRECO CAROLINA; ISON, MIRTA SUSANA

Journal of Latino-Latin American Studies

University of Nebraska at Omaha

Lugar: Nebraska Omaha; Año: 2014 vol. 0 p. 4 - 18

1549-9502

A growing body of research has already documented factors that predict happiness in adults however, studies on childrens happiness have just begun. The aim of this study was to explore Argentine childrens reasons for happiness. The sample included one hundred and twenty students between the ages of 7 and 9 (M = 8.03; DS =0.72), all of them attending Argentine public schools. The Face Scale was used to evaluate how children assess happiness and a focused interview was conducted to obtain childrens spontaneous verbal descriptions of what made them happy. A content analysis technique was then applied after the interviews. Most of the children reckoned that family as well as friendship were the main sources of happiness. They also mentioned different kinds of activities as sources of happiness, like school, recreation and leisure activities; and owning and playing with a pet. These aspects are useful to design mental health programmes aimed at promoting positive socio-emotional development during childhood.Indexada en ERIH Plus